We went to film in castle market for the first time a couple of days ago and conducted our first interview. It went well aside from one major error. Unfortunately and somewhat embarrassingly our interviewees were in soft focus, I'm guessing the mistake arose as a result of feeling pressured and under scrutiny when setting up the interview. This is such an annoying mistake as what should have been great footage is rendered almost useless. One way around this problem is to go back and shoot the sequence again (not ideal), or to use the recorded sound and not sync them to the visuals and use them predominantly as a voice over. Having experienced this problem, next time we'll be more careful. 

Sean Dunne's documentary (above) was a great inspiration. I'm taking a lot of the approaches used in this film and applying it to my own, for instance, the two locked off interviews. These simple set ups and the results they produce has enabled Dunne to gather the majority of information he needed in order to tell this man's story. With the dialogue captured, there's a lot of freedom for him to fill the film with inserts and cut away's of the archive itself, important as in order to show off the collection it's necessary for the audience to understand it's scale. 

Dunne uses a lot of voice over's and manages to cram in a lot of information without it feeling dry, this is done through the visuals as much as it is through the interviews. This is a method I plan to adopt when filming in Castle Market, to prevent the film from being a continuous talking head, I will use voice overs captured from a couple of set up interviews and play it over a lot of footage of the market its self along with the traders 'trading.' 

The interview with the wife is important to mention as its another method Dunne uses not only to break the continuous sound of Paul's (the contributor) voice but it's also used to give the story a different perspective and trigger an emotional response in the audience. To see her crying on screen really reiterates how big of a deal the archive is to them. 

In regards to the soundtrack of this film, due to the subject matter it's important that music plays a big part. In Castle market however, the predominate noise is coming from that of the traders and customers, therefore, I feel it would be wrong to layer a music track and essentially take away from the interesting and often amusing sounds of the markets' occupants. This isn't to say music doesn't play a part of market life, the building is fitted with dozens of speakers that blare decade spanning pop music. Perhaps this is an element to play with, although being that all the interviews are having to be recorded in the market, inevitably these songs will be picked up to some extent in the background noise. An issue that may cause problems when I come to cut the responses. Hopefully the voice recordings will be clean enough so that by layering atmos tracks over the top, the chopped-up lyrics can be disguised.          

The Archive. Film. 2009. Directed by Sean DUNNE. New York: sean@veryapeproductions.com

*Update (24/10/12)

We've now been to the market and filmed lots of footage of a number of stores. I'm pleased with the results and I feel it matches my expectations of how I want the documentary to look. However, one aspect of The Archive that we have yet to mimic if the use of tracking. Dunne uses movement to better portray the space and to gain understanding of the scale of the collection. It would be good if we could use this method in showing the scale of the market and create a sense of the audience actually being amongst the organised chaos. Without having access to dollys or actual tracks we'll have to experiment with trolleys wheel chairs etc. Hopefully castle market will allow us to bring a trolley inside and use it to create steady shots. Failing this, its possible they have wheel chairs in the event they should need to offer one to a customer. This isn't unusual in super markets, shopping malls etc so there's a chance we'll have some luck.    

BBC Inside Story

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00rzx5w/Inside_Story_1999_Fish_Tales/

Sound: This element is an aspect of the film that is most useful to me, in regard to it's style of footage, the handheld, following of action isn't something that I will try and emulate. While appropriate for the inside story, it just isn't necessary for my own work which relies on formal interviews and cutaways. The soundtrack however is useful in regard to envisioning how my film will sound. The round-the-clock hub-bub of Billingsgate is a relatively similar environment to that of where I'll be filming and unlike Dunne's film, very little music is used apart from during the brief periods of the piece, a devise to establish pace. The vast majority of the soundtrack seems to have been recorded on location either as sync sound or as atmos tracks to layered over the top. A method the directors used when introducing a character or going back to an established one when in the chaos of the market is to increase the're speech volume gradually. In this way they're able to achieve the effect that important information raises out of the general, inaudible speech naturally, not abruptly. This allows the film to flow from shot to shot without the audience being aware that the speech has been cut. I'll experiment with this when creating the soundtrack for Castle market. 

The voice over used in inside story is a big aspect to mention as it's the predominate driving force of the film and gives the audience context when a new location is shown or a new character introduced. It's also used to highlight themes and ideas of which the contributors then confirm through formal interviews and during the 'action' sequences. It's also important to note that the V.O is appropriate to the film being that it's narrated by a man with an east London accent, something to think about if we deem it necessary to include a V.O in our film, finding someone with an accent that conveys the right message is essential. Having said this I don't think our documentary will need one due to there being really only one theme and one location, I'm hopeful that we can cut the responses in such a way that the audience will understand what the contributors are talking about with very little context given. Perhaps the use of text in the opening sequence simply explaining the up-and-coming closure, summed up in a couple of sentences, would suffice.

Structure: Being that my documentary is going to be considerably shorter than that of inside story the structures of the two films are going to be notably different. One thing i can learn from it however is the importance of character establishment. The audience need to get to know the characters before they can start to really connect to them therefore getting the most out of what the film maker has been able to capture. This will be the case in my documentary, there is little point launching straight into the hard topics such as job loss, providing for a family etc if the audience don't care about the contributors. With this in mind I feel it best to use the first couple of minuets of the ten I'm permitted showing the audience my contributors at work, combined with sync and non-sync recordings. By showing endearing footage or recordings, for example a butcher bartering for the sale of meat or a trader explaining his love for meeting new people, I believe the audience will be in a better position to empathise with those contributors who have shown some of their charm and character. 

I'll need to cut the film into define sections too, as inside story does, starting with introductions then moving onto their history then identifying their problems and finally seeking to find how the contributors plan to resolve them. After talking to a number of the traders it seems a lot of them have similar stories, they have worked in the market for a long time, they have families to support, they don't want to move etc. Due to similar answers being given to the different questions we've asked them, I don't see it being too hard to divide the film into sections where we can jump from person to person and still produce a cohesive narrative for the documentary. Even those are are looking forward to the move still have their worries, in terms of us trying to document the process this is a good thing, as if there was a big divide in peoples opinions it would be hard for us to fairly portray this in only ten minuets.     

Inside Stories - Fish Tales. 1999. TV, BBC1. 1999, Jan 20th 
                      

Treatment One: Castle Market

By Henry Vinten & George Beattie  

Our ten minuet expository documentary is centralised around Sheffield's castle market. The film will be an informative piece on the history, future and general day to day activities of both store owners who have made the old market their livelihood, and the customers who have come to value to the market not only as a place to shop but potentially a place to socialise. We feel it’s more relevant than ever to make this film now due to the fact that by the end of 2013 a brand new indoor market will be opening on the Moor. Castle market has a long history dating back an estimated 900 years. The market is built on the ruins of the old Sheffield castle and has therefore been an important place of trade for nearly a century. With this soon set to change our documentary will seek to find out how the current residents, as well as the regular shoppers, feel about the change to come.

The documentary will include contributions from at least two different traders who own and run completely different types of stores.  

Jeff Fearn is going to be our main contributor. A man in his fifties or sixties, he’s owned and worked his store, JB Tools, for the majority of his life. He professes to be ‘the face of Castle market’ being that when asked about the upcoming shift it’s him that’s leading the fight for the trader’s rights. He’s a strong minded individual that doesn’t mind speaking out in regards to the way in which the new market is to be set up.

Michelle runs a meat produce stall who when briefly probed about the new market replied that when it opens she’ll be out a job. Again she’s a trader in her fifties who’s been at the Castle market most of her working life so similarly to Jeff she’ll be able to a give good insight into the thoughts of not just herself but her fellow traders. The fact that she owns a food produce stall as opposed to a home wares one offers the opportunity to reveal whether different types of stores are getting treated differently.

Tony Oakes owns one of the bigger butchers’ stalls in Castle Market, again offering insight into the way in which different sellers could be affected in different ways, depending on size, popularity, duration trading and so on.           

The majority of the film will be made up of material gathered from interviews, however, rather than using a ‘Theruox’ style interviewer, through the use of planned questions we’ll be able to edit the responses in such a way that a story can be told and understood without the audience directly hearing the questions being asked. These responses will be a mixture of voice over’s and sync sound, allowing lots of space in the film to show footage of the market it’s self. Showing the decaying state of the market is crucial for the success of the documentary as it’s for this reason the new one is being built. Alongside these cut aways, we’ll integrate archive footage of the market in years gone by, showing the progression from what would have been an exciting new shopping experience into that of what we see today.  Lastly, to gain a sense of what’s to come we’ll use concept art work of the new 2013 ‘Moor market’, throwing into sharp focus the vast difference in aesthetics between the new and the old.

I will be using a lot of close-up inserts to highlight details of the market and use them as much as the dialogue to tell the markets story.  As well as this, long un-cut takes of traders and customers going about their business will be featured to give an honest look at the current state of affairs and general atmosphere of the market.

I’m taking inspiration from Sean Dunne’s The Archive. The seven and a half minuet documentary follows Paul Mawhinney and his collection of around two million vinyl records. The mixture of close ups and long shots that pan the stacked basement do a great job of portraying the space, a method I’ll be adopting in portraying the spaces within Castle market. The interview format works well too, by asking the right questions the interview responses tell a full story without the need of the audience to be given any context. Lastly, the subject matter of Dunne’s documentary and that of mine are linked by a common theme, an inevitable end, in Dunne’s case, the idea that vinyl is a dying medium and in my own documentary, the fact the market is soon to close. The Archive does well to create a tone that’s not overtly sad yet forces the audience to empathise with its contributors. This is the approach I will be taking; the audience will be able to identify with and feel for the interviewees without the film becoming a piece that strictly emphases the ‘doom and gloom’ of the situation.     

I want the finished film to have a personal feel, an account of the troubles facing these real people, a subject relatable by all retailers and shoppers alike given the current financial climate. Rather than highlighting the bad and giving the impression of condemning the place, I will create a warm piece on a subject that despite appearances is home to an abundance of humble, friendly and good natured people.

           

Outline

1.   Beginning: Introduce the contributors, get an understanding of who they are, what they do, how long they’ve worked at Castle market.

2.   Middle: Find out what the market means to them, introduce the idea that their current location is in jeopardy, how they feel about this.

3.   End: What they think the future holds, excited, nervous, why?